How does the V.90 technology work?
Traditional modems assume that both ends of a connection to the public switched telephone network are analog. Data signals are converted from digital to analog and back again, limiting transmission speeds to 33.6 Kbps. V.90 technology makes a different assumption in that one end of the modem conversation has a pure-digital connection to the phone network (which Internet Service Providers and corporations already use for remote access) and takes advantage of that high speed digital connection. By viewing the public switched telephone network as a digital network, V.90 technology is able to propel data downstream from the Internet to your computer at speeds of up to 56 Kbps. *In this way V.90 technology is different than other high speed modems — because data is digitally encoded downstream instead of modulated. This is an asymmetrical method, so upstream transmissions (mostly keystroke and mouse commands from your computer to the central site, which require less bandwidth) continue to
